Different Jacobs
by JordanVDM
Summary: One shot which I am hoping to turn into a full story if everyone likes it. It's been 2 years since Bella was turned and the Cullen's left. Jacob didn't imprint. He's still depressed over her but he meets a girl on the beach whom he won't look at or talk to no matter how much he wants to. K rating will probably be changed if it becomes a full story. R&R if I should continue!
1. Chapter 1

Just another one of those pointless days, I was sat on a driftwood log at the beach as was my usual now since she had left, still empty and alone. It's been two years since she got married to Edward and became like him and I still wasn't over her. I don't think I will ever be over her, she became my world much like an imprint becomes a wolf's. The wind whipped around me, biting at my overheated bare chest but I wasn't cold. I looked out past the icy grey waves at James Island, barely visible in the mist surrounding me.

I had run, for a long time, trying to rid her from my mind and heart, and in my failure I had become lifeless, an outcast. I didn't really speak anymore unless it was to confirm one of Sam's orders, I barely recognised the sound of my own voice. My brothers were distant with me now and had been for a long time, they didn't want to feel my pain any longer. They started telling me to just get over her, that I was doing this to myself, that she was just some human who is now dead. And maybe they were right, I never imprinted on her, she was never really mine at all, maybe it is now self-inflicted, like getting over her would be to forget her.

I knew someone had been walking up and down the beach all day, longer than I had been sitting here, but I hadn't paid any attention to them. I wanted to be left alone, they obviously wanted to be left alone and that was fine with me. It was kind of nice actually, to be near another human being who didn't wince out of my way or look at me with pity or sorrow, to be alone but not at the same time.

I know that I can't go on like this forever, that I will have to do something eventually, reconnect with old-Jacob. The way I have been looking at it recently is that there are a few Jacob's; there is old-Jacob – the Jacob that I was before I met her, fun, happy and loyal, then there's new-Jacob – Bella's Jacob, all the things old-Jacob was but in love too. Wolf-Jacob – everything animalistic about me, my form, my senses and speed and lastly there is empty-Jacob – who I am now, empty and alone. I know at some point I will have to connect these different Jacobs. I will have to discard Bella's Jacob and empty-Jacob and find old-Jacob again. I will finally have to put old-Jacob and wolf-Jacob back together as one person and I have been searching for a way how, but it's impossible to find.

When she left me for him, when she told me she loved him and that she would always pick him, I ran, I ran from the pain, from her, from him, from my pack, from everything I have ever known. I didn't finish school; I got my GED instead when I returned home almost a year later. The whole time I was gone I stayed in my wolf form, as far from anything human as I could get. I sunk into my wolf self, away from my pain and misery and for a little while I could cope. I wouldn't say I was happy but I was okay with myself. But then I returned home, I had to be human again, face everything I had left behind, my heartbreak, my dad, my pack. That's when empty-Jacob really absorbed me, when I came home to everything I had run from.

I can see how much I am hurting them, my family, they want so much for me to be okay again, to be old-Jacob again, and I want that too, somewhere inside of me, I want that too. I want to be able to walk around my house and not hide in my room, I want to be able to smile at my dad and mean it, I want my friends and my family to love me again, to want to be around me, and I want to be able to be myself again, not hiding behind this sad pretence.

I was pulled out of my deep thoughts by the sound of footsteps in the sand, though muffled and slow moving, the noise still reached my ears through the wind. I felt someone stop beside me but I didn't pull my eyes away from the crashing waves to look at them. I didn't want company, I thought that was obvious.

"Do you mind if I sit with you? I've been walking up and down this beach for hours and my feet are killing me."

A girl's voice broke the silence I had created around myself, it was clear and feminine and I wondered if it matched her appearance. It wasn't one of those annoying scratchy voices or too high pitched that she squeaked at me. It was kind of the most perfect voice I had ever heard and I found myself willing her to speak again. I said nothing and waited for her to leave, I was content being here by myself as usual.

"I promise you won't even know I'm here." She muttered. She wanted to be alone too.

I nodded and felt the air around me move as she did. She sat herself down next to me, leaving a small distance between us, as strangers usually would. I couldn't feel much heat coming from her body as she sat there silently next to me and I recognised that she must be cold out here. I chanced a glance around me, the presence I had noticed walking up and down the beach had gone and I realised that it must have been her.

A gust of wind hit us full force from the left where she was sitting throwing her scent to my nose. She smelled like wild flowers on a hot sunny day, with a hint of cinnamon. She was by far the most amazing thing I had ever smelled and I wanted nothing more than to smell that smell for the rest of my life. I wanted to turn to look at her, to put a face to that smell but I couldn't force myself to do it. I was going to be okay on my own, no one could hurt me if I didn't let them in and turning to look at her would be like doing that, it would be giving her an invitation.

I balled my hands into fists on my knees, doing everything I could to not turn to her, I wasn't going to let anyone hurt me the way _she _had. But with this unknown girl by my side I feel less alone now, there seems to be less pain. I know it's because I'm thinking about this new girl, her scent and her voice, wondering what her name is, if she comes from the reservation. And I realise that if she does, I would recognise her scent, because there is no way I could forget that scent, but I don't. I know that thinking about her was just distracting me from Bella and I welcomed the distraction for a change.

We sat there in silence for a long time and it was taking everything I had in me not to turn to her. But too soon she got up from her seat. I'm sure we had been sat together for at least an hour in silence but she was leaving now and I could feel myself getting lonelier by the millisecond.

"Will you be back tomorrow?" I blurted it out before my brain even realised I was speaking. I didn't move my eyes to look at her, thinking that this was the only way I wouldn't be letting her in. If I didn't look at her, I didn't know her face and if I didn't know her face she couldn't be a part of my life.

"Probably." She sighed as she walked away.

She was sad and it killed me to know it, I felt my heart aching for her, longing for her. I felt the tremors running through my body as the anger starts boiling under the surface. Someone had hurt her; the more I think it the more angry it makes me, I will do whatever it takes to protect her. Somewhere deep down inside of me I know wolf-Jacob took over the second I spoke to her, but I let him as I run towards the forest, stripping off my shorts to phase.

Running freely in the forest I let loose the anger filling me up, _someone hurt her_ I think it over and over again, willing myself to calm down. I don't even know this girl.

I replay the sound of her voice in my head, how sad and hurt she sounded, I remember her scent, particularly the hint of cinnamon which made it so alluring to me. I wanted to find her, to tell her everything would be okay, to hurt the person who hurt her, but I didn't even know her face.

_Dude, did you imprint? _Embry's voice pushes through the anger to fill my head.

_I don't know. _I tell him. _I didn't look her in the eyes._


	2. Chapter 2

She came back again every day for weeks, we just sat together in silence, and she seemed comfortable with that. Not once did I turn to look at her, and I think she grew accustomed to it. I haven't said a word to her since I asked her if she would be back and she doesn't even ask to sit with me now.

She sat down next to me and I knew today had to be different, we couldn't go on like this, as two strangers. I would say something to her today, maybe ask her what her name is, or why she seems so sad. I decided against this though, that would be personal and she wouldn't want to tell some random guy about it. Asking her for her name would be okay, I'm sure she would tell me, and I so badly wanted to know it.

Her familiar sweet scent filled the air surrounding me and I lost myself in it for a while. Letting it soothe me the way only she could. I felt calm when we sat here, calmer than I ever have before, like it is right, this is the way everything is supposed to be.

I don't turn my face to her as usual, I just stare out across the ocean, a small part of me wanting to be that free, but then I wouldn't have these moments with her.

I cleared my voice to indicate that I wanted to say something. I could feel her eyes boring into the side of my face, as if she was willing me to speak.

"I'm Jacob Black." I tell her without looking at her and for some reason I think she's smiling.

"Skye Maingan", she replied in her beautiful voice.

"Skye Wolf, huh?" I chuckled, not that she would understand why.

"Yeah, my ancestors were supposedly shape shifters from the legends." She told me. It took me some time to process that, having been a male, she would have been one of us. Maybe my dad would know her.

"I don't think I have ever seen you around" I say more to myself than to her.

I think she shrugged. "Wasn't overly keen about high school, so kind of stayed invisible whilst I was there and then went off to college a couple of years ago." She sounded sad again and it ripped at my heart.

"The semester only just started though, shouldn't you be there?" I asked confused. I wanted to help her, I _needed _to help her.

I heard her movement but didn't know what she had said, so I took my chances and turned to look at her. She was still looking straight at me, her eyes a deep brown were wide with shock, but her full lips soon turned up into a small smile. Her hair was long and slightly curly, dark brown but shining more gold where the light hit. She was more the beautiful; there were no words to describe the stunning girl beside me. I looked down to her figure; she was slim but curved, wearing a tight fitting black coat and dark jeans.

I felt my whole world shift the second we locked eyes, my heart beat started racing, almost as if my heart was trying to go to her. Everything else fell away as I looked into her eyes, she was the one and I loved her instantly.

I knew I was staring at her, I just couldn't stop, she was everything to me, my whole world, and I would love her, fight for her and protect her for the rest of my life. I tried to focus; we had been in the middle of a conversation. As I remembered I felt the worlds spilling out of my mouth, "You don't want to talk about it?" I asked her.

She looked confused for a moment, her eyebrows joined together, her forehead crinkled and her eyes looked at me questioningly. "My parents died in a car accident, so I came home, school just doesn't seem important now." She said the words without meaning to, I could tell.

I nodded understanding the pain she felt; I felt it every day still over my mother's death. "My mum died too when I was nine. If you ever want to talk about it…" I trailed off, why would she want to talk about it to me? She doesn't even know me.

She sighed and nodded. "Thanks." She whispered. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." She said getting up to leave.

I nodded but I couldn't say anything, I longed to go with her, to look after her, to make her happy, but I couldn't, not yet. She needed me to be here when she came to sit with me, eventually we might be friends, but we would go at her pace, no matter how hard it was for me to watch her leave, I had to.

She walked away, leaving me feeling more alone than ever but somehow the happiest I had ever been.


	3. Chapter 3

She didn't come back the next day like she said and I started to worry about her. I needed to find her, to know that she was safe but I didn't even know where she lived. I cursed myself for not having spoken to her sooner as I paced around Sam and Emily's front room, I was livid with myself, I should have known this would happen.

"What do I do?!" I stressed, willing someone to answer me, I needed help and they were just staring blankly at me as if this was the first time I had ever spoken.

"You need to calm down Jake." It was this moment that I realized my body was shaking, convulsing, fighting to phase, so my wolf could take over the situation. I couldn't let him, he'd be too dangerous, too wild, and I wouldn't let the wolf in me hurt her.

I fought the shivers running furiously down my body, balled my fists and concentrated on breathing easily. I couldn't help her whilst I was like this. She needed me calm, and that's what I will be for her.

"There might not be anything wrong with her Jake, she might just be busy." Quil tried to reason with me.

"She hasn't been busy for weeks, what would she suddenly have to do?! It's not even like she has much family to distract her!" I was fuming and they weren't helping, I needed them to help me find her not help me wait for her.

Silence erupted around me again and I continued my pacing, less angry this time but still with the same strong desire to do something. I waited for the help that wasn't coming and I knew if I waited much longer I would burst. "Someone, please, just help me find her!" I yelled, I needed them to be as worried as I was, they were my support system, they were meant to care about her.

"We would if we knew where to look Jake." Seth's voice was small and quiet, but even he thought it was hopeless to look for her. "The only place we know she's ever gone is the beach." Tension built in the room and I knew I needed to get out of there; I didn't want to hurt one of the imprints but what about my imprint?

I stormed out. They should have been more helpful, they should have tried harder. They didn't care! They didn't care that they had finally gotten me back and they were throwing me away again. If something happened to her… I stopped myself there, I couldn't think about that, not right now. The phase ripples down my body but I fight it as I jog to the beach, wishing I could go faster but knowing that would only reveal our secret. It wouldn't help Skye.

I would sit and wait until she came back here, even if it took days, weeks. I would wait forever if I had to. I had nothing now but hope, hope that she would turn up, hope that she was safe, hope that she would be looking for me too. So I sat on the driftwood log to wait, glancing furtively around me in search of her.

I don't know how much time had passed when I heard a car roll to a stop in the parking space across the silent beach. Even the waves seemed to make no noise and I heard the door open and slam shut perfectly. The muffled footsteps that rang around me put me on high alert, they were hers, I had grown to recognise them, welcome them over the weeks.

She sat beside me and stared glumly out at the ocean. Her aroma filled the air and I inhaled deeply before turning to look at my beautiful angel. It was that moment that her head dropped to her hands and she started sobbing uncontrollably. My heart ripped for her, I felt my face contort with the pain I felt for her but I didn't say anything. This wasn't a moment for words; I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her onto my lap, hoping she would be okay with this. She didn't stop me, instead she placed her head into the crook of my neck and wrapped her arms around my shoulders and continued to cry.

I held onto her tight and pulled her as close to me as I could. She wasn't wearing her coat today and I was afraid she would get cold. I rubbed her lower back soothingly and silently prayed that whatever had happened to her today wasn't too bad, that somehow I could help her with it.

The sobbing stopped after a long time but I still felt her tears trickle down my chest, Skye made no move to release me and I didn't want to let her. I wanted to hold her forever, all I could do for now was hope that one day I would have that chance. I needed to fix her first.

Skye began to pull herself together sometime later, she pulled away from me wiping her beautiful eyes dry and looking at me sheepishly. I didn't remove myself from around her and that seemed to be okay with her. I looked at her patiently, needing to know what had upset her so much but unable to ask her. She would tell me if she wanted to.

Her hands plopped down to her lap and her face followed, I guessed she was embarrassed by her outburst and I had to comfort her. "You don't have to look away from me, it's okay." I whispered to her.

She slowly raised her eyes back to mine. "I just feel stupid for crying on a strangers lap." Her voice was sad but she managed a small giggle.

"I don't think we're strangers, I mean, I may have only learned your name yesterday but we've been hanging out for weeks." I tried to sound casual, now knowing that she was my imprint, this was more than hanging out to me, this was everything.

Skye smiled a small and sad, "They took everything." She mumbled. My brows creased together with both concern and confusion. I didn't speak though, I couldn't question her yet. "I barely made it out with some clothes and my car…" she trailed off. I still didn't understand, and I wanted to. "They were in debt for paying for my college tuition and they took the house and everything in it, I have nowhere to go and no money to go anywhere, and no family to run to for help… I will not cry again." The last part she added to herself, she wanted to be strong, and she needed to be.

It was my turn to talk now. "You have friends though?" I asked, she shook her head no and looked down in defeat and loss. "You have me." I reminded her. Finally something I could help her with and she would have no choice but to let me. "I promise I am no serial killer or pervert," I was trying to keep it light. "I'm just your friend, if you want?" I tacked it on as a question knowing that I would have to be something to her, I had no other choice.

"Really?" She asked as her eyes started to glisten.

I nodded at her, "You need somewhere to stay?" I asked, feeling incredible that she would be with me.

She nodded a little shy. "You don't have to feel bad for me though, if you really don't want me…" She trailed off.

"Well, you'll have to put up with my dad, but he's alright really." I chuckled at her.

"Really, I don't want to be in the way." She felt guilty, but I didn't mind, one day, hopefully soon, she'd understand that I want her with me.

"You most definitely won't be in the way. The old man will love having you, and at least this way I can keep tabs on you, know you're not getting yourself into trouble." I hoped saying that wouldn't freak her out too much, she was my world but I'm not hers yet.

"You don't even know me." She mumbled.

"I don't need to know you to know you're a good person who needs a break. I can see it in your eyes. Luckily for you, I can be your knight in shining armour." I chuckled again, I wanted her to smile. She did, a little. "Come on."

I lifted her off of my lap and took her hand to direct her back to her car and my home.


End file.
